Bill allows police to take DNA

Samples could be taken in felony arrests.

Samples could be taken in felony arrests.

February 09, 2009|By ED RONCO Tribune Staff Writer

People accused of a felony would be required to submit DNA samples under a bill moving through the Indiana Senate. It's one of three measures cheered by law enforcement personnel and under fire from privacy rights advocates. Senate Bill 24, authored by Sen. Joe Zakas, R-Granger, would allow police to collect DNA from any adult arrested for a felony offense. Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend, is also listed as a co-author. Convicted felons must give DNA samples under current law. Those samples are stored in a national database called CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System. The database has 6 million records, about 105,000 of which are from Indiana. "It's time for the law to catch up with the technology," said South Bend police Capt. Phil Trent. DNA collection is now done by swabbing the inside of someone's cheek -- less invasive than prior methods and less messy than fingerprints, Trent said. "We've had DNA hits on some burglars in the last year," he said. "We've built some really good cases on DNA hits." Under Zakas' bill, those who aren't convicted can have their sample removed from the database. 'Incredibly personal' But not everyone can afford to have their records expunged, said Gavin Rose, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. And people shouldn't have to pay legal fees to have their DNA samples deleted, he said. But the ACLU has a broader concern, saying the DNA collection invades someone's right to be innocent until proven guilty, Rose said. "It turns a fundamental precept of our criminal justice system entirely on its head," he said. "It's incredibly, incredibly personal. It's who you are." Zakas points to case law in which the court has upheld DNA collection as a viable tool for law enforcement. The courts have likened DNA collection to taking fingerprints from suspects, Zakas said. But the ACLU disagrees that fingerprints are on par with DNA. "This is an individual's most private information and is in fact a biological catalog of everything about them," Rose said. "Susceptibility to disease, susceptibility to mental illness, ancestry ... I hate to resort to cliché, but this is another step in the direction of Big Brother." At a cost Zakas says the law only allows investigators to look at a fragment of someone's genetic code, and that they cannot and should not look into personal traits, such as disease heredity. The state's Legislative Services Agency puts the bill's price tag between $1.4 million and $3.4 million to analyze and maintain additional DNA samples. The agency also said the Indiana State Police would have to add four clerical staff members to help expunge DNA samples taken from those not convicted, which could cost an extra $160,000. The measure is being studied by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Zakas also introduced Senate Bill 3 to allow DNA collection from minors convicted of sex crimes and violent offenses, and Senate Bill 4 to allow police to use close DNA matches to investigate people who might be genetically related to a sample. Staff writer Ed Ronco: eronco@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6353